Six Nations logo Today was the start of the RBS Six Nations. The six countries involved are: England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland (Republic and Northern Ireland as a combined team), France and Italy.

Having made the World Cup final, England entered the tournament as joint-favourites with France. However, despite an impressive opening half (especially between the 5th to 25th minutes, England managed to implode in the second half and lose their match to Wales.

In the tournament’s opening match, Ireland managed to overcome Italy. Ireland seemed very impressive in the first half but was unable to finish off Italy.

Tomorrow, Scotland shall host France (weather permitting) in a game that could see France re-emerge with an exciting new team. Or it could go to a powerful (and more experienced) Scotland team. Scotland will be hoping for a strong Six Nations - since they play host to England and France (but are away to Ireland, Wales and Italy). Yet, if Scotland loses her first match, she could suffer next weekend to an energised Wales side in Cardiff.

Despite losing the game to Wales, there are some positives England can take from the match. However, first of all - the negatives: England rugby logo

Injuries to Moody, Rees, Tindall and Strettle
Lack of leadership when things started to go wrong
Poor defensive display from Balshaw; Wilkinson fallibility
A lot of the team are past their prime (Vickery, Regan, Gommarsall)

Indeed the injuries probably played quite a large part in England’s demise, as Ben Kay was forced to play in the third row - and England lacked the quick forward ball and momentum from the first half (and the first five minutes of the second), plus had no room for manoeuvre in terms of second-half substitutions. The only unused player was the uncapped scrum-half, Richard Wigglesworth. And just when England could ill-afford inexperience, Cipriani had to replace Tindall.

And so on to the positives:

Strong pack which has capacity for turnover ball, breaking game line, and dominating at set-pieces
Pace of Sackey, Strettle, Balshaw and Vainikolo all are genuine weapons
Emergence of Haskell, Rees and Flood

There are also general positives about English rugby - we have many players such as Easter, Tait and Cueto who can all come in and are just as good as the current side. Other than France, no other Six Nations side has such depth. I am still positive that England can win at least 3 of the remaining 4 matches. I also think that the trend is to quicker, more dynamic, rugby. And that England are capable of playing this way (though Wilkinson will need to up his game), especially in the long-term with a scrum-half like Harry Ellis (who will miss this whole championship through injury).

England must beat Italy in Rome this coming Sunday. Whilst France and Scotland away are difficult matches, we must back ourselves to win them, before finishing the tournament against Ireland at Twickenham. If this season goes badly then a more dramatic cull of players and coaching staff should be in order, to use 2009 as a building year, before driving forward in 2010 and 2011 with a settled squad for the two Six Nations and World Cup. For now, though, the long-term view is not important and we should keep faith in Ashton and a more gradual evolution of players, rather than a France-esque revolution.

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